Robin Bavinton YHS 1958 - The articles by Henry Winters and Judith Dolan (Dickson), have stirred me into action. I have really enjoyed reading the contributions in the YOGA Newsletter and they have bought back many memories of Yallourn and in particular YHS.
Henry wrote of the game of 'Donkey' under the pine trees at the back of the toilets, it sure was a rough and tumble game and I think it was banned sometime in my first year. A less rugged game that was also played in that area was "kick the tin", which as I remember it involved a group of 4 to 6, a circle of about 4 foot in diameter and a tin, purloined from the incinerator, (leftovers from Domestic Science?). The basic concepts of the game as I remember it were, that the person who was "it", had to tag all the others without anyone being able to get back to the circle and "kick the tin", thus releasing those who had previously been tagged. A great game as long as the older kids from forms 3 or 4 didn't pinch your can. Judith wrote about the Dandenong Choirs and I was intrigued to see my brother Peter (part of Henry's article), in the photo. He is in the 2nd row, 3rd male from the right, I think the first boy from the right is Colin Smith, son of "Minnie" Smith - Typing/commercial teacher YHS, (can't remember her proper name). I was a member of the Dandenong Choir for a number of years and was part of the Senior Boys Choir which not only won the Westminster Cup in the Boys Section, but also the coveted Gartside Cup for the Champion Choir of the Festival. To my knowledge, this is the only time YHS took that trophy. I still have a picture and article from the 'Live Wire' covering the event. I don't have the date, but think it was 1962 or '63. One of the songs we sang was 'Shortnin Bread', but I can't remember the other one. We were so rapt because we beat our long standing rivals De La Salle College, a much larger 'boys only' metropolitan school. We had always finished runner-up to them in previous years.
I also have a photo of when I was in 3A (1960). Phyllis "Polly" Parsons was our Form Teacher and with the help of Geoff Hannon, who I caught up with at Woorabinda for the first time since we left school, have put names to all but 3 or 4 - not bad out of 48 - after all these years.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Woorabinda 'Back To' and look forward to next years. It is great to see ex teachers contributing articles - Jim Hazen was my Biology teacher in Matriculation (1963), and also Mr (Jim) Dooley attending Woorabinda. It is good to see that YHS (Yallourn), left lasting and pleasant memories for them as well.